Having a medication nurse?? Yes or No?

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · May 31, 2012

the idea of a "med nurse" in acute hospitals went away a long time ago, although it's still very much in action in snfs. i don't care for it myself, for the reasons you mention.

imintrouble, BSN, RN · May 31, 2012

I want to give my own meds. I'm meticulous about checking VS before giving meds. I would not trust someone else to be as careful.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jun 1, 2012

"the charge nurse made one of the nurses the med nurse "???

I believe your "charge" nurse was in a hurry to leave .. did some juggling of assignments and made an over all BAD call on patient care reassignment.

Why didn't the charge nurse just split the patients (only 7?) for medication and nurse duties, until the aid arrived?

Nobody gives my meds but me.. I am responsible for my patients.. and I decide what meds to administer based upon my assessment.

Scary, dangerous , and a BAD call . You need to write up the incident .. stat.

shipmanmisty · Jun 3, 2012

At our facility it is allowed to have a med nurse, when needed, but in this case I think it isn't needed.

DoGoodThenGo · Jun 3, 2012

I am an LVN on a m/s floor. Yesterday we had a low census and our CNA was running late. Only having 7 patients wouldn't justify having 3 nurses so since our aid was late the charge nurse made one of the nurses the med nurse until the aid showed up and then she could go home. The med nurse gave all of the 0900 meds for all of the pts. Just curious how many like someone else giving your pts their meds? I personally like giving my own meds since they are my pt and i'm essentially responsible for that pt.

Assigning one nurse to give meds for an entire floor/unit of an acute care facility went the way of team nursing for several good reasons. How can one nurse without intimate knowledge of a pt's status safely administer his or her meds? Said nurse must to a quick assessment and or consult the chart (which hopefully will be up to date) and or simply "wing it" and move on. Then there is the question of post administration observation. If there were a large number of pts that med pass could take a very long time. *LOL*

One supposes if the number of pts is small and the nurses work in closed ranks together it could be pulled off, but its a very dangerous path to start down.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Jun 3, 2012

In the hospital, I prefer to give my own meds. I like what I call "primary care nursing," meaning that one nurse does her/his own assessments, gives their own meds, IV's, etc. I am not comfortable with someone else doing my admission assessment, or my meds, because I am going to look at the overall condition of the patient and make decisions of what meds I might give or withhold myself. I know what procedures the patient will receive, and make my plan of care accordingly. Having a med nurse reminds me of the old days when we did "team nursing." Until recently, I had always worked with an "all RN staff," so primary nursing care was easy, but now I have to do assessments and some push meds for LPN's, so we end up combining care responsibilities, but we all give our own p.o. meds.

amygarside · Jun 25, 2012

I think the one in charge made a bad decision. It was very risky and might lead to the detriment of the patients and the med nurse herself.

maelstrom143 · Jul 12, 2012

My patients, my meds whenever possible. I just feel safer that way.

4everstark · Jul 13, 2012

The "Med Nurse" is not a thing of the past unfortunately. The hospital I currently work for is trying to reintroduce the "practice". I can tell you from first hand experience that in an acute setting, with greater than 15 pts, it is more than unnerving to be responsible for passing meds to the entire floor. I feel it is unsafe, and echo the thought mentioned previously regarding checking orders in the chart, pre and post administration assessment. It comes down to patient safety. In the state I work I have searched and searched for guidelines and rules regarding the "safe" way to be a "med nurse" and of course there is nothing in writing to protect my license, nor the patient for that matter. You would think common sense would come into play but it seems that when staffing is an issue, common sense is the last thing on anyone's mind and it is so utterly frustrating.

loriangel14, RN · Jul 13, 2012

I have worked like that before and it worked just fine.Our census was low and we have no aides.One RN did all the meds and the rest of us did the cares. I had no problem with someone else giving my meds. She was a trained RN with years of experience in giving medications.